The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) Stock Position Raised by GHP Investment Advisors Inc.

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) by 24.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 995 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after buying an additional 195 shares during the quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Williams Companies were worth $54,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WMB. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Williams Companies by 19.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,734,666 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $1,631,288,000 after acquiring an additional 5,697,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Williams Companies by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,722,702 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $1,398,004,000 after purchasing an additional 520,663 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Williams Companies by 0.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,239,210 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $330,470,000 after purchasing an additional 67,016 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in Williams Companies by 0.3% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,617,300 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $165,130,000 after buying an additional 9,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Williams Companies by 3.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,271,141 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $149,326,000 after buying an additional 108,675 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WMB. Mizuho upped their price target on Williams Companies from $47.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Williams Companies from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. CIBC lifted their price target on shares of Williams Companies from $45.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $51.00 price objective on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Williams Companies in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Williams Companies has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.00.

Williams Companies Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE WMB opened at $55.93 on Friday. The Williams Companies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.65 and a twelve month high of $61.46. The stock has a market cap of $68.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.60, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.57.

Williams Companies (NYSE:WMB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pipeline company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. Williams Companies had a return on equity of 15.89% and a net margin of 27.36%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that The Williams Companies, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Williams Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. This is a positive change from Williams Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Williams Companies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 84.39%.

Williams Companies Company Profile

The Williams Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company primarily in the United States. It operates through Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services segments. The Transmission & Gulf of Mexico segment comprises natural gas pipelines; Transco, Northwest pipeline, MountainWest, and related natural gas storage facilities; and natural gas gathering and processing, and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region.